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The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 29 - The Star Wars Fall of the Empire Special!

The Great British Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·33m 13s·held·Sep 12, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Neil McRae reviews Star Wars: Fall of the Empire of the Empire and Spike 3, calling it the best Star Wars pinball ever made.

Summary

Neil McRae provides an extensive hands-on review of Stern's new Star Wars: Fall of the Empire pinball machine and the Spike 3 hardware platform following an exclusive factory visit in Chicago. He praises the game's artwork, audio quality on Spike 3, accessible fan-layout gameplay, and thematic immersion, calling it the best Star Wars pinball game ever made. He also discusses the game's European unavailability due to Disney licensing, provides brief impressions of other recent games (Avatar, Harry Potter, Dune, Barrios, Galactic Tank Force), and reports on PAPA 22 World Championships.

Key Claims

  • Spike 3 features a 35% larger screen (18.5-inch Full HD LCD), redesigned cabinet head by George Gomez, improved audio with separate tweeter and main speaker, HDMI output with audio, WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), sleep mode, and backward compatibility with Spike 2 node boards.

    high confidence · Neil McRae describing Spike 3 specifications from his hands-on experience at Stern's Chicago factory

  • Star Wars: Fall of the Empire uses a fan layout (not a typical John Borg fan layout like Guardians or Metallica), includes eight characters with three to four modes each, multiple multiballs including Death Star multiball, an AT-AT walker toy that falls over, a Sarlacc Pit, and a Force ball save mechanic.

    high confidence · Neil McRae detailing playfield layout and features after playing the game

  • The game is not currently coming to Europe due to Disney Europe licensing restrictions; Neil advises European fans to email Disney Europe to complain.

    high confidence · Neil McRae explicitly stating Disney Europe's refusal to license the game for Europe

  • The game code is early (version 8.82 or 8.83) with Darth Vader scoop modes and modifiers still being developed, classic Star Wars one-liners included (e.g., 'Laugh it up, fuzzball'), C3PO call-outs by an uncredited voice actor, and call-outs still being coded.

    high confidence · Neil McRae discussing code status and audio features from hands-on play

  • Neil claims this is the best Star Wars pinball game ever made by a significant margin, superior to Steve Ritchie original Star Wars, due to immersive audio, art, and storytelling rather than overlaying Star Wars onto a generic pinball design.

    high confidence · DOMINO Pinball: Neil McRae direct comparison and personal assessment

  • The game will sell 'like hotcakes' due to: visual appeal (no AI art used), exceptional Spike 3 audio quality, and accessibility/fun gameplay for both casual and dedicated players.

    medium confidence · DOMINO Pinball: Neil McRae prediction based on location appeal and market factors

  • Limited Edition includes expression lights; Premium can add expression lights as an option; Pro cannot have expression lights added.

Notable Quotes

  • “The artwork is amazing the back glasses are stunning um and it really hits you um on the LE, they've got a blue trim, a bit like the Monster Bash trim for the Monster Bash (Remake LE)”

    Neil McRae @ ~3:30 — Establishes high production quality and visual appeal of Star Wars: Fall of the Empire across editions

  • “I have to say, I was not expecting it to be as good as it was... They have absolutely killed it on the audio”

    Neil McRae @ ~5:00 — Highlights Spike 3's unexpected audio quality as a major technical achievement

  • “I would say it's the perfect screen size. I think Jersey Jack's too big to try to see stuff. This is perfect.”

    Neil McRae @ ~8:00 — Positions Spike 3's 35% larger screen as optimal balance vs. competitor hardware

  • “You're in the action right away. There's no faffing about with 50 shots to light a mode. You're right in there.”

    Neil McRae @ ~20:00 — Describes the game's accessibility and quick mode start as a key gameplay strength

  • “It's the first Star Wars game where I felt like I'm in the movie. It feels like I'm the character that I've selected and I'm doing my bit for the rebellion.”

    Neil McRae @ ~26:00 — Emphasizes thematic immersion as a major differentiator from previous Star Wars pinball games

  • “I am going to say it's the best Star Wars game made for pinball, by some margin, especially the immersion with the audio.”

    Neil McRae @ ~44:00 — Definitive statement positioning Fall of the Empire as superior to all prior Star Wars pinball machines

  • “The game looks amazing. It just, you know, as Stern said, there's no AI involved in the art, which made a lot of laughs. The artwork is fantastic.”

    Neil McRae @ ~34:00 — Confirms human-created artwork and emphasizes visual differentiation for location play

  • “It feels like they started with Star Wars and built the game around Star Wars. Whereas... it feels like you're playing the greatest hits of Star Wars.”

Entities

Neil McRaepersonScott RundellpersonJohn BorgpersonGeorge GomezpersonMark RitchiepersonRady ConollypersonSteve RitchiepersonZach Sharpeperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Spike 3 launched as Stern's third-generation hardware with Fall of the Empire as flagship title; features 35% larger 18.5-inch Full HD LCD screen, enhanced audio with dedicated tweeters, HDMI output, WiFi (2.4/5GHz), sleep mode, Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 processor, improved video codec, and backward compatibility with Spike 2 node boards

    high · Neil McRae's detailed technical walkthrough of Spike 3 specifications from factory visit; multiple confirmations of specific features

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spike 3 positioned as first step of platform capabilities with more features to come; playfield innovations not yet fully deployed; Stern developing code incrementally (currently 8.82/8.83) rather than releasing complete feature set

    high · Neil states: 'I think this is the first step of spike three rather than the big bang of everything' and notes Darth Vader scoop modes/modifiers coming in future updates

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Star Wars: Fall of the Empire emphasizes quick mode access and accessibility; no lengthy shot sequences to light modes; fan layout appeals to casual and non-pinball players; compared favorably to Stranger Things layout rather than complex Metallica/Guardians designs

    high · Neil: 'You're in the action right away. There's no faffing about with 50 shots to light a mode. You're right in there.'; describes fan layout as approachable for non-pinball audience

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Star Wars: Fall of the Empire designed with Star Wars theme as starting point rather than generic pinball mechanics with licensed overlay; results in stronger narrative immersion and character-driven gameplay compared to Steve Ritchie's original Star Wars game

    high · Neil: 'It feels like they started with Star Wars and built the game around Star Wars'; 'It's the first Star Wars game where I felt like I'm in the movie'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.100

0:00
Welcome to the Great British Pinball Podcast and here are your hosts Scott Rundell and Neil McRae. Welcome everybody, this is the Great British Pinball Podcast, I'm Neil McRae. Scott isn't here because this is a special episode all about Star Wars Fall of the Empire. Stern has an embargo on this, you have to agree to that. We were invited to their offices in Chicago, their factory in Chicago, and I went, Scott didn't. He's got bigger, more important things on his hands, and just to say mother and baby are doing well, they're at home, everything's looking great. Scott posted some beautiful pictures on his Facebook, book and he's a busy and tired man big shout out to Holly and Scott we love you loads back to Star Wars so this will be released if all goes according to plan at 11 o'clock Chicago time today which is Friday the 12th of September that's the kind of cut off date although we're waiting for Stern to confirm that so it could be later anyway nonetheless I thought I'd get organised for this and share my view of the game the thing that hits you about this game first off is the artwork stern have commissioned three absolutely stunning pieces of artwork probably some of the best star wars art i've ever seen and they've smashed it on that you've got um the battle of endor on the pro you've got empire strikes back on the premium and also kind of empire strikes back on the le which is the the um snow speeders battle of i forget what it's called um it'll come back to me but um hoff battle of hoff um and it's the kind of scenes are set from the movies they've as you'll see from the videos and the pictures you're going to see over the next couple of days the artwork is amazing the back glasses are stunning um and it really hits you um on the LE, they've got a blue trim, a bit like the Monster Bash trim for the Monster Bash LE, if you've seen that, maybe a little bit lighter, but it really pops, and the game looks amazing.
2:32
The second thing about the game is there's a Spike 3. Let me just cover that first before a deep dive into the actual game. So Spike 3, new CPU, new amplifier, new USB stuff, more memory, more video memory, bigger, faster, better. How does that translate to the pinball player, to the user? Really simply. First of all, the audio. Mark and the team Who built this board Have absolutely killed it on the audio The audio sounds outstanding I am a geek That spends stupid amounts of money On freaking speaker cable Because I believe it will make things sound better And it does They have really smashed it They've separated the speakers So you've got a separate tweeter And kind of main speaker And obviously the sub in the cabinet still, and the level of detail, especially lower bass signals, just pops.

high confidence · Neil McRae describing edition-specific features

  • Stern's business appears positive despite secondary market oversupply; they believe the market is recovering from COVID peaks and returning to normal levels.

    medium confidence · Neil McRae reporting on Stern's upbeat tone during factory visit

  • Jersey Jack's Avatar game is a 'missed opportunity' with poor lower playfield design and problematic code that doesn't prioritize fun gameplay, contributing to poor sales despite beautiful artwork.

    high confidence · DOMINO Pinball: Neil McRae hands-on impressions at PAPA 22

  • Barrels of Fun games have underpowered flipper feel; Dune includes a worm mech that swallows the ball (similar to Metallica Hammer) but has reliability issues; American Pinball appears to be shutting down based on factory appearance.

    medium confidence · DOMINO Pinball: Neil McRae observations from playing games and passing American Pinball factory

    • Neil McRae @ ~40:00 — Articulates the core difference between Fall of the Empire (thematic-first design) and Steve Ritchie's Star Wars (mechanics-first overlay)

  • “Stern gave the Papa 22 two whitewood playfields to auction off one was Kong and one was Metallica (LE) the remastered... all the vendors kind of leaned in and gave stuff that was raffled away”

    Neil McRae @ ~66:00 — Documents manufacturer and vendor support for PAPA 22 charity fundraising

  • “the flippers on BOF games just feel under they feel underpowered to me”

    Neil McRae @ ~59:00 — Highlights recurring design concern with Barrels of Fun flipper tuning

    • Eric Stone
    person
    Andy Bagwellperson
    Tomperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Barrels of Funcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Star Wars: Fall of the Empiregame
    Spike 3product
    Avatargame
    Dunegame
    Harry Pottergame
    Barriosgame
    Galactic Tank Forcegame
    PAPA 22 World Championshipsevent
    Disney Europeorganization
  • ?

    product_concern: Star Wars: Fall of the Empire unavailable in Europe due to Disney Europe licensing refusal; significant market exclusion that Neil expects will generate collector frustration and secondary market imports

    high · Neil explicitly states: 'Disney Europe has said no' and is exploring US import options; predicts European market will be 'pissed off'

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern reports positive business conditions despite secondary market oversupply; factory tour showed upbeat team; business characterized as 'okay' with recovery trajectory expected

    medium · Neil: 'Stern were very upbeat... things were actually okay... you know things were were actually okay'; notes doomsday stories driven by secondary market oversupply rather than fundamental business issues

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Significant positive sentiment shift toward Star Wars pinball with Fall of the Empire; Neil personally shifted from reluctant to enthusiastic buyer ('before I was jett likes killing me before I was kind of you know get one after i'm putting more effort to get one now'); suggests major franchise success

    high · Neil's direct personal statement of changed buying intent and comparison to Steve Ritchie Star Wars game performance

  • ?

    product_concern: Jersey Jack Avatar criticized for poor lower playfield design and problematic code prioritization; resulted in poor sales despite strong artwork; Dune's worm mech has reliability issues (second sighting); Barrels of Fun games show consistent underpowered flipper tuning; indicates quality control and design execution issues across competitors

    high · Neil's hands-on impressions: Avatar 'missed opportunity', Dune worm 'hosed' twice in two days, BOF flippers 'feel underpowered'; Avatar sales reported as poor

  • ?

    personnel_signal: John Borg confirmed as designer of Star Wars: Fall of the Empire; attended factory event; praised for creating thematically coherent Star Wars experience different from typical Borg fan-layout methodology

    high · Neil explicitly credits John Borg and notes he 'has done a great job of creating a Star Wars game'; attended factory

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spike 3 HDMI output with integrated audio enables direct streaming setup; wireless headphone Bluetooth support in development; external WiFi antenna capability; designed with streamer/content creator workflow in mind

    high · Neil details HDMI streaming capability, mentions testing Axune wireless transmitters, notes Bluetooth headphone support in development

  • ?

    industry_signal: American Pinball appears to be shutting down; Neil reports factory 'didn't look like it had a lot going on' after passing it; games (Barrios, Galactic Tank Force) underperformed commercially despite decent quality

    medium · Neil's factory observation and commentary that Galactic Tank Force 'should have done better than it has done'; no recent product announcements from American Pinball mentioned

  • ?

    event_signal: PAPA 22 World Championships successfully raised significant funds for suicide awareness; Stern donated Kong and Metallica LE whitewood playfields for auction; vendors contributed raffled merchandise; demonstrates industry coordination for charitable causes

    high · Neil's detailed reporting on PAPA 22 charity efforts, Stern donations, vendor participation, and fundraising for Lyman Sheets memorial and suicide support organizations

    • 3:45
    I have to say, I was not expecting it to be as good as it was. I was expecting it to be better, for sure, right? But as good as it is, I was not expecting that. They have smashed it. The second thing, the screen is 35% bigger. and George Gomez, he's actually redesigned the cabinet head to fit it all in. And literally, they've just taken away wasted space. They've squeezed the speaker space a little bit more, hence the tweeter kind of speaker setup. It looks like a hi-fi speaker.
    4:18
    And when you see it, you'll say, oh, it doesn't look that much bigger. It is hugely bigger. It's 35% bigger. And if you put the old screen, and I actually told Stern to build this model, if you put an overlay of the old screen and then take it away for the big screen, it's a massive upgrade. And I would say it's the perfect screen size. I think Jersey Jack's too big to try to see stuff. This is perfect. It means the Translight's the same size, the cabinet head's the same size.
    4:49
    You kind of have to take a double look to notice that there's any changes. but I have to say the screen quality, I mean, what this means is they've got enough real estate and it's HDMI, so it's 1080p. You can kind of zoom out. You can have like a Star Wars video playing and around it you can have all the data because quite a lot of licensors will not let you put your stuff onto their video. James Bond, for example, Star Wars, for example. I think John Wick as well. I might be wrong on that. I think they had to kind of zoom out for that. I might not be 100%, but it just gives them more flexibility to put stuff on the screen. Spike 3 has HDMI out, and on HDMI it also has the audio, so you can plug in an HDMI cable, take it to your streaming rig, life is good. It also should work, I'm going to test this as soon as I can, with the Axune wireless transmitters, which for streamers is very much good news. wireless headphone support which would be bluetooth um i think there's still some work to do on finalizing that but um again that's another really big plus point uh for the game um you know when you're playing on location you want to be able to hear the audio and it's something that i know a lot of people have been asking for it's coming um it's much more home friendly so the game so the setup has sleep mode so you can put it in sleep mode it'll do downloads of new code whilst the game's off and update it so you can turn it off you can put it into super sleep mode so if you're one of the um guys like me that's go hey alexa turn on all the pinball machines um it is you can you can set that up with it in the sleep mode in some of the modes the boot time is much quicker and that will appeal to some people that hate waiting for the game to boot what else can I say, also onboard WiFi that's 2.5 gig and 5 gigahertz and I'm pretty sure they didn't say this but having looked at the board it definitely looks like there's a cable for an external antenna which should make things a lot better particularly for locations where you've typically got a lot of interference.
    7:15
    There's more to come from Spike 3, more capabilities. They've added more to the new menu system in terms of stats.
    7:27
    Node boards from Spike 2 are compatible with Spike 3. I actually think you could take the screen and speaker part from Spike 3 and make it work on Spike too. Actually, maybe not the speakers, but definitely the screen.
    7:43
    Actually, the speakers, but without the Twitter, obviously. But they've done a really, really great job of making a small but significant change. And did I tell you the audio is amazing on it? I just can't believe how good it is.
    8:01
    And I'm trying to think of any other Spike 3 big kind of things to think about. I mean, that was kind of it. And you know Spike 3 things are kind of a big step into the future I think with more memory more storage space and also more processing power they using much more a much better codec So when they compress stuff they using better codec. So the compression for videos and audio sounds a lot better. And you could definitely hear that. The CPU is a Raspberry Pi based CPU that they've bought to kind of clamp onto their on board and i have to say i think they've delivered what spike three needed now what does that mean for the play field i think right now not a lot i think they've got stuff more stuff to come um but it allows them just to do more with with assets and things like that but you know i think this is the first step of spike three rather than the big bang of everything um and in my mind it's a great step forward um especially the thing i was worried about was a different shaped cabinet it um which i've got as you can see from behind me i've got a bond 60th and that cabinet's slightly different and it just sticks out like a sofa i'm saying with beetles uh let's get back to star wars so um star wars uh fall of the empire so so the story kind of starts um i mean there is some stuff from new hope in it which i mean for me the the end of the empire starts with new hope um especially if you think about the prequels right um luke luke becomes you know the luke starts his journey to be a jedi um obi-wan comes out of hiding uh they go and blow the death star up which is kind of the beginning of the end um so in on the game um the different shots like different characters and each character's got a set number of modes that involves that characters let me tell you the first thing that really hit me about this game was you're in the action right away. There's no faffing about with 50 shots to light a mode. You're right in there. It's very quick to get a mode going. It's very quick to get a multiball going. The layout is a fan layout. It's not a typical John Borg fan layout like Guardians or Metallica. It's a bit more of a traditional fan layout which I think for this title is perfect so that you know Star Wars games always pull in a lot of non-pinball players some of the shots are quite tight but you can backhand them especially the Death Star which swallows the ball which if you remember was a prediction that I made it does swallow the ball eats the ball if you're so inclined and you've got the Sarlacc Pit Again, you can backhand some of these shots, and you've got some ramp shots. Some of the shots you tie together to produce a combo that does something. Like you've got an at-at walker on the premium that falls over. Quite a cool little toy. It's not a huge toy, but you can do a big at-at walker toy on the playfield. It just wouldn't work.
    11:18
    But they've got one that falls over, and you do that in the mode by hitting towards it and then do another shot, which is effectively the looping of the tow cable to make it fall down. It works really well. The code's early, of course, as you'd expect.
    11:37
    And on the play field, you've got some other stuff, you know, some toys that move and light up. You've got some that are kind of just static and fixed just to make the play field look nice. Overall, I think the play field looks good. it's a fan layout so it's pretty straightforward there's pop bumpers on either side which is all about the force and that's the other part of the game the force plays a part in some abilities including on the game which is this ball save where you've got to hit the button but you've got to hit the button in the Jedi way for it to work some of the guys that were there managed to make it work they had the skill, they had the force was with them for me the force was not with me um i couldn't i couldn't get it to work but i actually wasn't trying too hard um so but but you know it's a cool feature i think if it's they thought well it's not so this works from two areas it works from the ball going straight down the middle but also it's in the ball from the outlay and actually the outlay one as you'll probably see in the stern videos actually looks pretty cool for tournament directors like me it's hell It's probably the first feature I'm going to turn off.
    12:53
    Because it's, well, actually, probably not. But I think it probably needs some balancing from a tournament perspective. But for the home use or on location, it's a great, cool little feature when you get it right.
    13:06
    I think there's eight characters on the play field, and each of them have three or four modes. So there's plenty to do in this game. There's loads of different multiballs. The one that I was going for was Death Star multiball. one because I like seeing the ball be swallowed by the Death Star and two it kind of launches them out at one big kind of fire kind of one shot which is quite cool you've got this ramp on the premium LE you've got this ramp that goes up and down a bit like the rush ramp and that just gives you access to kind of some other parts of the playfield and then you've got the usual orbits that you'd expect in a fan layout um the artwork on the playfield is great there's not much difference between the artwork between the versions um in fact there's any difference on the playfield artwork and i think the game the game i don't want to spoil the game for folks because that drives me nuts when people go into the gory details of it but the the modes are really close to the start button So, like I say, you get into it really quickly.
    14:17
    And, you know, it's the first Star Wars game where I felt like I'm in the movie. It feels like I'm the character that I've selected and I'm doing my bit for the rebellion.
    14:30
    And I think that works really well. There's a Darth Vader scoop that has a whole bunch of modes and kind of modifiers that are coming over the next few weeks, or what I would imagine is the game is released and the code gets developed. I think I heard them say they're on like code 8.82 or 8.83 or something.
    14:57
    And the other thing that's cool about the code, and Rady's done an epic job on this, which is there's a lot of the classic Star Wars one-liners you'll hear laugh it up fuzzball one of my favorite uh han solo quotes um that they've kind of put like a bit of comedy that's in star wars all around uh the game c3po does the call outs um which is which is excellent i don't think it's anthony daniels um i actually meant to ask that and forgot but it works really well whoever it is they've done a great job it works really well um and again they've got they've they haven't coded all the callouts yet they're working you know they're working through that but i was impressed by the callouts and also it wasn't like harry potter where it feels like you're reading the powerpoint slide the callouts are kind of specifically pinpointed at different points of time of the game when you need them and and i think that again i just think stern are just i know they're just better at doing that than anyone frankly um europe yeah so some of you are asking me what's the story with europe the game's not at the moment the game is not coming to europe disney europe has said no so uh email disney europe and complain is your best bet of changing that i'm going to try and figure out how i import a game from the us i don't even know if that'll work but i'm going to give it a go um and i think um I think this is a game Europe's going to be pissed off they don't have. Is this game you know like an uncanny X or a Kong in terms of its playfield layout no it not that right um and for some people that appeal to them you know there was a there was a uh one of the other um folks invited to the event you know said no jump box games are always hard um which i don't think it's true at least i don't think it's true um but and i like hard games as you know So, and I kind of resisted the call to do a Steve Ritchie play better.
    17:07
    But, you know, I think the fan layout will make that easier for folks. The fan layout is probably closer to Stranger Things than it is to, say, Metallica or Guardians of the Galaxy. But I think John Borg, who was there, has done a great job of creating a Star Wars game. I think this game is going to sell like hotcakes for two reasons, actually for three reasons. One, the game just looks amazing. It just, you know, as Stern said, there's no AI involved in the art, which made a lot of laughs.
    17:43
    The artwork is fantastic. So the game really stands out on location. It's going to stand out. Location, folks, you're going to love this game. It's going to swallow lots of dollar bills. and the second thing is is the audio um and with spike three the improved audio i mean you can really crank it up as you'll see in one of my videos and it's just a just the clarity of it um is is very impressive especially for especially for a design you know this pinball cabinet design isn't designed for audio quality right and but it works really well and you you hear it in the main title of Star Wars where, excuse me, sorry I'm a bit jet lagged, you hear it where the main title of Star Wars, you just hear the depth of the orchestra I think that would be another positive thing, and finally the game, the game is a huge amount of fun again, it's no Jaws or Kong in terms of complexity of shots etc but I think it's a great game I think people are going to enjoy it you know it's early code so I always kind of hold off on where the game's going but from what I've seen so far the approachableness of it the accessibility of it and getting into missions to do stuff quickly I think is is valuable you've got this force thing as you do shots and and you know your force improves again I don't want to spoil too much of that and actually I kind of when I when I almost avoided trying to learn too much about how the game plays because i like to play the game to learn how it plays at least for the first few weeks of ownership and then i'll go watch um joel or uh travis do a youtube video on it um criticism of the game what could i criticize um the fact that it's not coming to europe although i don't think that's aimed firmly at disney um i think you know some people might have been looking for more than a fan layout they might have been looking for more bigger kind of toys um i think what's there is is good um and again i'm not a big mech i'm not a big complex mech fan um is that right my fat no i don't mind them but i don't miss them either you know look at iron maiden one of the best games ever it's got no mechs in it at all it's just coils right um the at walkers are cool little toys the death star swallowing the ball it kind of pops up that's that's quite cool the sarlacc pit's pretty straightforward and mod makers are going to love this game because i think there's lots that they can add in terms of value um i think the um i i i don't have anything that i could really criticize it for uh at this stage i think um the game is in a place where it's on a it's it's good it's i can see it being great it's on the right path to be great i think the code completing the code and understanding you know what they're going to do to that to really you know make that story of star wars um you know really fit to your planet so i'm before i was jett likes killing me before i was kind of you know get one after i'm putting more effort to get one now i have to import one from the us and you know i'm speaking to a lot more people to try and achieve a game here um and i think this is going to be every bit as big, if not bigger, than Steve Rich's Star Wars. I am going to say it's the best Star Wars game made for pinball, by some margin, especially the immersion with the audio. On the LE, you've got the expression lights, which really add to the whole kind of, especially there's a couple of lightsaber moments. you can add the expression lights to the premium as an option, the pro if you buy a pro you can't there's no way of adding expression lights a bit like I think Uncanny X-Men was like that and I think it's going to sell really well, I think it's going to do amazingly on location, location owners are going to be really happy with this home buyers and Star Wars fans are going to be happy with this, I think because of the artwork and the audio just sounds amazing and the fact it really feels like you're in the game the previous star wars games from steve richie i never liked that game i'll be honest with you i thought i thought it was um it's quite a tough game i think the multiplier stuff was a bit overwhelming i never really got to grips with it and as i said it didn't feel like it that it felt like a game where they'd overlaid Star Wars. And that's not a criticism. It's just how it feels to me. Whereas this game, it feels like they started with Star Wars and built the game around Star Wars. And maybe that's unfair to Steve and Dwight and the team that built the previous Star Wars. But that's how it feels to me. It's not meant to be a criticism. It's just, I just definitely feel like you're much more, like Mandalorian, it feels like you're much more in the story than the Star Wars where it feels like you're, you're playing the greatest hit in the old Star Wars it feels like you're playing the greatest hits of Star Wars whereas this feels like there's more of a story component to it and you're in that story what else to share I mean not much more than that I mean I really appreciate them running these days I know some folks say oh why do you get invited and I don't get invited honestly I don't I think any manufacturer or irrespective of where they come from, that talks to people is a good thing. Certainly in my job, I engage with the press and the areas that represent my area proactively.
    23:58
    I'd rather that they had a story than they kind of made up a story, if that makes sense. So I think this is great from start. And they looked after us all day. Again, we got a tour of the factory. on the fact that he was John's 50th and some, I think there was also some Kong.
    24:16
    And business for Stern looks very positive. I know there's all these stories of unsold games, et cetera, et cetera, but, you know, Stern were very upbeat. I think they clearly recognized the market's not, you know, at its COVID peak, but they were pretty, you know, adamant that you know things were were actually okay there's a lot of doomsday stories you know and obviously the second hand market is a signal on that but I think that's just oversupply um and eventually it get better but I think it get much better I think this is the market that that you would normally have um what else i was at papa 22 world championships congrats to z mac who won uh the main and eric stone who won um the uh classics uh it was a great event um really well run andy bagwell and the team did a great job I hung out with Tom from Fox City Pinball So I did a bit of announcing Throughout the weekend The games played really well, they were set up really well It was tough I kind of got five games But Unfortunately Excuse me again, unfortunately Not on the same card, sorry, I'm a jet lag Excuse me, I was in the US for over a week Because I was there with work as well But yeah, great gig And actually whilst I was there I got to play a couple of games again.
    25:49
    Let me just run through them. So I played Avatar, Jersey Jack Avatar. That's such a missed opportunity. The game shoots really nice. The lower play field's not great, I have to say. I think that's a miss. But the rest of the game shoots really well. The code's just un-understandable. I mean, I don't know what whoever wrote that code was thinking, but they certainly weren't thinking about making it a fun pinball game because it's just not. But it's usually nice. The artwork on it is beautiful. If you're an Avatar fan, you'll love it, especially.
    26:26
    But I really missed Opportunity. From what I've heard, it's not sold well at all. And I feel, you know, for the team that worked on that, I kind of feel for them because it should have done better than it did. I also played Harry Potter more they had an interior they had the arcade version which is the same game but it's got the kind of armour and actually the artwork is probably the closest to the movie artwork so if you want the movie artwork the arcade game is the one for you and it's got the same black armour that Stern uses for their pros and premiums which I was kind of amused by But, as I put out there, it would be stainless steel.
    27:13
    I had quite a few games on it, on the Harry Potter. In fact, I think I stuck 40 bucks on it because I used a whole card. The upper shot to the little mini playfield at the top is quite a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that. The whole If I compare it to Star Wars, the whole mode select On Harry Potter is just stupid You've got to shoot Quite a challenging scoop shot A dangerous scoop shot To start modes or films as they are It doesn't feel like You're in the game, it feels like you're Playing pinball with Harry Potter Stuff being thrown at you A bit like Steve Ritchie's Star Wars To some extent the callouts are just not there's just too many of them it's not that they're bad, Mark Silk does a great job of recording them but it literally feels like you're being read a powerpoint slide again I think the game shoots well but the code and the feel of it just does nothing for me I can't imagine buying one unless someone was giving it away and then I'd probably stick it in the club and then I also played some Dune and I want to say Dune is getting better but some parts of the play field I feel are quite challenging to shoot I might even use the word clunky in a couple of areas but the big thing I've seen is they've got this worm thing that swallows the ball a bit like the Metallica Hammer mech and I've seen a couple of them down now in fact on the first day I was able to play June, the second day I wasn't because that worm thing was hosed and that's the second time I've seen that, I don't know if that's something to worry about I've looked at some pictures of it doesn't look like it's probably the best design mech you might expect but I'm sure the barrels of fun guys are over it I've said this before but the flippers on BOF games just feel under they feel underpowered to me and again I definitely got that feeling again I don't know if you can change that I don't have access to the keys of this game so that was quite challenging excuse me I feel really bad yawning it's not through anything other than jet lag I played Barrios I've actually bought a Barrios is a great game it's a lot of fun to shoot I played Galactic Tank Force with the latest code on it again it plays really great it's a shame that that game it's a shame they kind of messed that game up frankly it should have done better than it has done but I might pick one up cheap in the fire so American Pinball look like they're done I drove past the factory and it didn't look like it had a lot going on What else did I play that's kind of new or weird? I think I'd say, I don't think I put those in. I mean, I played a lot of games in the tournament, et cetera. And that was, the tournament was a huge amount of fun. The games were set up great, but I think that probably covers it. And I said, big shout to Interium, Andy Bagwell and the Papa crew that put on Papa 22, because It was a huge amount of fun. They raised a huge amount of money for the suicide awareness. There's tournaments in memory of Lyman Sheets, and lots of money was raised for the suicide hotline and suicide support organisations. And it was good to see that, you know, that money being donated for that cause. and also Stern, a big shout out to Stern in fact actually more than just Stern but I'm going to mention him specifically Stern gave the Papa 22 two whitewood playfields to auction off one was Kong and one was Metallica LE the remastered so I was bidding on both but unfortunately my logistics partner he couldn't get them collected when they needed to be collected because I didn't know they were there I didn't give them enough notice so I kind of stopped bidding and was praying that someone would outbid me which on both things they did all the vendors kind of leaned in and gave stuff that was raffled away it worked out really well and yeah that's it That's probably it for me. Hopefully we'll be back in a couple of weeks ahead of the UK Open with Scott.
    32:26
    But, you know, let me know what you think about Star Wars in the comments. Subscribe, like, et cetera, if you're watching on YouTube, if you're watching on your own podcast catcher. Again, subscribing, give us some likes. It makes total difference, not just to me, but to any pinball streamer, because the more we're visible, the less likely of shit shows like Disney not delivering Star Wars to Europe. On that bombshell, I'm going to say adios. Again, a shout out to Scott and family for wishing them well over the next few weeks.
    33:05
    And speak to you soon, folks.